


Soulmates, Entirely the Wrong Way Around

by DarkJediQueen



Series: A Universe of Meetings [13]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bondage, Creepy Hotch, DJQ's 2016 Fic A Week Challenge, Gags, Gratuitous Lamp Deaths, Kidnapping, M/M, Secrets, Soulmates, Suicidal Thoughts, Threatened Child Harm, Threatened Murder, forced drugging, threatened rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 14:05:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7848010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The timer counted down to tell Spencer he was getting closer to meeting his soulmate. When it hit zero, he was being grabbed by a man that haunted his nightmares and had for a year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soulmates, Entirely the Wrong Way Around

**Author's Note:**

> **Warnings** : Graphic Depictions of Violence, Forced Drugging, Threatened Rape, Threatened Murder, Suicidal Thoughts, Threatened Child Harm, 
> 
> **Beta** : rivermoon1970

Spencer Reid was walking down one of the alleys in Las Vegas when something started to tickle at the back of his mind. It was like there was something important that he couldn't remember. Then as he stumbled on something that he couldn't see in the dark, throwing his arm out to stop himself, Spencer caught himself with his arm. His leather strap covered wrist. Jerking the knot open, Spencer looked again at his wrist minutes. 

"Fuck," Spencer said as he looked around where he was. It wasn't where he ever thought that he'd meet his soulmate, a dingy alley in Las Vegas with Spencer trying to escape the thugs who had just tried to mug him. He also knew that he shouldn't be in the alley to begin with. There was a serial killer out there who had been taking and killing young men who fit his description. Seven young men had been killed so far. Spencer had stayed away from the areas where they had been found, but in running from the muggers, he hadn't realized where he was going. He didn't want to run back the way he came just in case he ran across the muggers again. 

So he kept going. Watching his wrist, listening to the sounds of the city and sneaking glances up. It wasn't until he was almost to the mouth of the alley that he realized that someone was there, just rounded the corner actually. He was dressed in black with a hood pulled up over his head. Spencer stopped and waited. When the man didn't move, Spencer took a step back. The man took a step towards him. Spencer turned to flee. He made it about ten steps when he felt a hand close around his wrist and jerk him back. As he was flung into the arms of the man, he looked down. His timer was gone. His back connected with the man's front and a hand closed over his mouth. He felt the sharp sting of a blade at his throat. 

"Make a sound and I'll slit your throat," the man said. 

Spencer thought about the fact that his soulmate, the person he had been waiting for his whole life. The person who was supposed to love him forever, was a serial killer holding a knife to his throat and was going to kill him. The knife disappeared from his throat and Spencer inhaled, getting ready to scream. The body behind him moved and then he felt nothing but pain on the back of his head. Then he knew nothing but darkness. 

XxXxXxX

Spencer came awake with pain all along the back of his head. He tried to open his eyes but the brightness of the room made him close his eyes again. He groaned as he tried to roll over in his bed only to be stopped by something hard, wrapped around his right wrist. He fluttered his eyelids to try and get used to the light. When he could look without it making his head hurt worse, he realized that he wasn't in his bed. The thing around his wrist was a pair of handcuffs that were attached to the metal frame of the headboard of the bed he was in. He remembered what had happened. The serial killer had got him. He was going to be killed. He wondered why he woke up though, the others were killed in the alleys where they were ambushed by the serial killer.

Looking down his body, Spencer was thankful he was still dressed, even if his shoes were gone. He could deal with that. He looked around and rolled to where he could open up the bedside drawer, found a pen and cried out silently in relief. He easily popped the cap and used the metal tip of the pen to get himself out of the cuffs. He was halfway across the room when the bathroom door opened. Out stepped a man with a towel wrapped around his waist. Spencer couldn't be sure it was the same man from before because he hadn't seen his face but the size and build were right. The man's face was filled with shock and Spencer made it another step before the man threw down the towel in his hand and sprinted at him. Spencer tried to make it to the bedroom door but when he heard heavy steps getting closer he decided to try and grab the lamp on the stand. He spun and as he jerked it up as the man came in range and he brought it down on the man's head. The man grunted in pain and went down but his forward momentum crashed him into Spencer. 

They went down and Spencer's head slammed into the floor. His vision blacked out and he wasn't sure if he lost consciousness or not. When he opened his eyes again, the man was settling on top of him, jerking his hands above his head. He cried out as his head cracked off the floor again. The man shifted his grip to one hand holding both of his down and then covered his mouth with his other. Spencer tried to bite the hand but wasn't able to as his fingers dug in tighter. 

"Silence or I am going to gag you!" The hand pressed harder on his mouth and it pushed his sore skull into the floor. He couldn't hold in the moan of pain. His eyes went cross and then the pressure was letting up. The nausea swelled and whatever crossed his face had the man jumping up as Spencer rolled to his side and threw up. Before he was done, the ringing in his ears started up and was pretty sure he had a concussion. That wasn't going to help him in getting away. He tried to get to his knees but they slid out from under him. He was saved from landing face first in his own sick with an arm wrapping around his shoulders from the front. He wasn't sure what the man was doing until he was lifted in the air. He expected to be taken back to the bed but instead humid air wrapped around him. He closed his eyes as the room spun around in his vision.

Hands touched him after he was set down on something hard and he tried to fight, but he was too uncoordinated to successfully shove them away before he felt the warm air on naked skin of his upper body. He tried to shove the man away again but another wave of nausea hit him and he threw up again. It was making his head hurt even worse. He was certain that he was about to be raped, even with vomiting the man was trying to strip him. He planted his hand on the floor to try and get away but it was wet. He was in the shower. He was afraid that if he tried to cry out, he'd throw up again so he tried again to shove away from the man. He only tipped himself over. He shoved with his legs when his feet touched the wall. He reached out with his hand and it closed around soft flesh. Opening his eyes, Spencer could see the man crouched at his side, naked. The towel had fallen off. He closed his eyes again and tried to fight the nausea that was trying to win. It was only when he squeezed his hand to fight of the nausea that he realized he hadn't actually removed the hand from the man's flesh. He jerked it away and it shifted him again and he just gave up. He laid down and didn't care what happened because not moving kept the nausea away. He felt his pants being removed but instead of pain or even touching, the man left, his feet padding on the wet floor of the shower. He was naked.

Spencer didn't care and he just laid there. He lost track of time but he knew that he puked three more times before the man came back. He heard the soft padding, but he didn't open his eyes. He just laid there. Then the sound of the shower kicking on startled him and he opened his eyes. The man was right there, dressed in a pair of boxers with the sprayer of the shower in his hand. He tried to fight it when the water was turned on him but he couldn't. The concussion was still giving him fits with coordination and the man was strangely enough cleaning him off. He probably didn't want him smelling of vomit during whatever he had planned and Spencer couldn't blame him. 

The thing was that he knew he should care. He knew he should want to live but his soulmate was a serial killer. And since they had met, they would die together. Even if he escaped from him, Spencer would still drop dead at a later time. Better to die now when it would give him a perverse thrill that he was taking him out now, before he could kill someone else. 

Darkness came again when he was lifted up into what he thought was a bridal carry. He welcomed not feeling his end come.

XxXxXxX

The sound of soft voices woke Spencer up. He was in bed and it took several seconds to realize it was a TV. He opened his eyes and regretted it as he realized it hadn't at all been a dream. He was still in that bedroom, still on the same bed and handcuffed again. He found the man sitting at a table in the corner with a newspaper in hand and a spoon in the other. The smell of whatever he was eating filled Spencer's nose and his stomach growled. He stilled on the bed and hoped that the man didn't hear it but he had no such luck. The man set down the paper and the spoon and turned to him.

"Awake?" The man asked but Spencer kept his mouth shut. He just stared at the man. The man stared back, but Spencer didn't look away. His head was clear and it only ached a little bit now. As long as he didn't hit it again, he should be fine. He found he was cuffed on the other side of the bed. He couldn't reach the table anymore. He'd have to figure out a new way out of the cuffs when the man left him alone again. He'd wrote a paper that had gained a little attention in the law sector of academia on how many things could be used to escape various methods of cuffing. The handcuffs were some of the easier, if one had the tools necessary. "Ignoring me isn't going to help you. Answer me, are you fully awake now?"

Spencer kept his mouth shut and looked away from the man, finding that he could roll onto his side and relieve some of the strain on his arm. There was no sound from the man and Spencer was listening as hard as he could. No sound of the chair moving and no sound of padding feet. There was nothing until the bed dipped. He was rolled onto his back again and the man was right there. His face was impassive but his eyes were angry. 

"Do you think this a lark? You are mine now. You could run screaming from this room and have me drag you back by the hair and no one in this hotel would bat an eye." The eyes darkened to an almost black color. "You are mine to do with as I please."

"Just like the others?" The words slipped from his mouth and he hadn't meant to say them. The man's lips curved slightly, like he was happy that Spencer had spoke. 

"When I saw you last night I thought you were an idiot for being out that late but it's not that. You don't know do you?" The man moved to straddle him, his face just inches away from Spencer's. Spencer saw that the man had dressed him in boxers and a robe while he was in a pair of jeans and a short sleeved polo shirt. At least they weren't naked but at this point it didn't matter. He swung his free hand up to hit him and the man caught it easily. He leaned up, pinning his no longer free hand to the bed. 

"Know what?"

"That serial killer out there? It's not a single person. It's the Doyles and they are looking for you. Seems you saw something that they didn't want you to see and are hunting you. They don't have your name but I do, Doctor Spencer Reid. And as long as you stay here, as my plaything, I'll keep them away from you."

"What?" Spencer demanded. 

"You don't recognize me?" 

Spencer looked at his face. Trying to place if he had ever seen it and he remembered that he had. He had seen it. In JJ and Will's club, NOLA. He'd seen him in it every single night that he was there. Just seeing him like this, dressed down was strange. Hotch was his name and he was Foyet's problem solver. He'd killed a plaything of his in the bathroom at the club six months ago. Before the cops could even get there all evidence had been gone. He'd been hitting on Spencer for a year and in the past three weeks had just barely stopped himself from just forcing himself on Spencer. This was Hotch and if Hotch was the man in the alley, why didn't his timer stop and go away the moment that Hotch had first grabbed his ass a year ago? What was so different about them meeting in the alley?

"How happy I was to see you. All alone in that alley. Who bruised you?" Hotch's voice was low and almost caring as he swept his fingers down the bruise forming on his chest. Spencer kept his lips closed as the hand stopped on the side of his stomach. This was worse. Hotch being his soulmate was worse. He'd rather have a serial killer. The grip of hand turned to pressure and Spencer closed his eyes expecting pain but instead, the hand lifted. He felt it land again on his throat. Swallowing was reflexive but Spencer kept his eyes closed. Hotch was touching him more than he'd been touched in awhile. Since his last girlfriend four years before. 

"Let me go. Please." Spencer knew that he liked begging. His playthings did it enough in the bar. He didn't want to be Hotch's plaything. 

"I won't do that. I've already called the school and talked to the dean. He knows you aren't going to be back this semester."

"What!" Spencer opened his eyes and tried to move up and throw the man off of him. Hotch laughed as he didn't even move. The man was sitting on his thighs, trapping him, between that and the handcuff and him having a hold of his other hand, there wasn't a thing Spencer could do to save himself. 

"Oh, does that piss you off?" Hotch smirked. "Then what about the fact that my men are emptying your apartment as we speak and I've paid off your lease. This is your home now, right here. In my bed."

Spencer didn't want to believe him but he did. He knew from gossip that Hotch's playthings were his in all ways. He choose what they wore, where they slept, what they ate. Spencer knew that the man wasn't cruel to them but he was sadistic in nature. He protected his things. He'd beat a man half to death that assumed that since he fucked his plaything, anyone could. The man hadn't got any farther than groping and thrusting on the boy before he'd found his head cracking off the table. Hotch had paid for damages done to the club and even the cleaning costs of the blood. Two days later, Hotch had set his eye on Spencer and even if the playthings didn't end up dead, Spencer never would have touched him. 

"I guess I should get the unpleasantries out of the way." Hotch shifted off him and didn't stop him when he followed his cuff to the opposite side of the bed, curling there, covering himself with the robe. Hotch stayed at the other side of the bed but his eyes never left Spencer's body. 

Spencer shivered at the liberties that he had to have taken when cleaning the vomit off of him and dressing him in the underwear. He felt sick and not because of the concussion. 

"Doyle wants you and I'm the only thing keeping you safe so that means you do what I want. I told you a year ago that I get what I want. If you are thinking of leaving, I have safeties in place." Hotch pulled a phone out of his pocket and tossed it onto the bed between them. Spencer didn't even move. He just looked down at the phone and back at him. "Doyle is tight lipped on what exactly you saw but knowing you and your memory, it could be anything. A string of numbers on a paper at the club or a face. But he's not going to touch me and mine. I need to make sure that you are going to stay here though, stay in my bed. You will do whatever I want and if you run, I'll tell Doyle who you are and where exactly to find your mother and your little godson. And whatever I do to you will be small change compared to what Doyle and his men will do to your mother and godson."

Spencer knew that he was trapped. He knew that there was nothing he could do. He believed that Hotch would do that. The thought of Doyle's hands on his mother or Henry had him wanting to do anything that would stop that from happening. He couldn't look at Hotch though so he curled into a ball, shutting it all out. The man didn't do a thing other than stand up from the bed. Spencer heard him go back to where he had been. He listened, knowing that Hotch could move without him hearing it, but thankfully the bed was against a wall so he'd have to get onto the bed before he could grab Spencer. 

Thoughts whirled in his head. He had no clue what Doyle wanted out of him but he wouldn't let his family get hurt because of it. He just needed to get out of whatever place Hotch had him. He knew from overhearing things at the club that he lived in a penthouse suite of the hotel closest to the club, but he wasn't sure that was where he was. He just needed to wait until Hotch was gone. He'd escape and give himself up and protect his family that way. He knew exactly where he could find one of Doyle's men and turn himself over. Already there was too much blood on his hands if it was right that Doyle was looking for him. But Hotch didn't know him. He'd rather die than let someone else die in his place. 

The light in the room was flicked off and the door opened and shut. Spencer uncurled and waited. He let his eyes adjust to the low light around him. The curtains were pulled and the only light was from around the edges of the curtains. So he only moved when he was sure that it was safe to. He didn't know how long he'd been there already. Whether it was the same night or the next, so he just wanted out as soon as possible. He slipped over to the other side of the bed, moving so slow that no sound was made. He pulled the drawer open again but this time there was nothing inside. Hotch had emptied it. Spencer pulled the drawer all of the way out and reached inside. He was hurting his wrist but he didn't care. He felt around in the bottom of the area and had to hold in his cry of happiness when he touched something small and cold. He slid the thing closer and then pinched it between his pointer and middle fingers before pulling it out. 

It was a large paperclip. He bent it out the way he needed and picked the lock on the bed first because it was easier and then the one on his own hand once he could move it the way he wanted. He set the pair on the bed and crept off the bed. He took off the robe. It was Vegas no one was going to bat an eye at him in his underwear at night. If this was the hotel he thought it was, he'd be able to sneak out the back and get away. He just had to make it out of the bedroom first. Listening at the door, Spencer heard nothing in the room beyond. Hotch must have gone somewhere. Still he opened the door carefully and looked around the outer room of the suite. There was no one around. The small kitchen area had the remnants of what looked like Hotch's dinner and there was evidence of someone else eating with him but there were no people. He was halfway across the room when he heard the bedroom door shut. 

Spinning around, Spencer saw Hotch leaning against the door there. He looked disappointed. 

"So, either you have decided that your mother's life is not worth your own or you made the decision to go to Doyle and hand yourself over, either way, you aren't going to like what happens next." Hotch took a step towards him and Spencer turned back around to make a mad dash for the door. He just had to get to the stairs. When Hotch appeared in front of him at the door to the hall, Spencer stumbled back. He ran into something hard. Then Hotch was right there with an arm on either side of his body, trapping him against whatever was behind him. "So it seems that I'll have to give you another reason not to leave."

Hotch pulled a phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. He laid the phone on the cushion at Spencer's hip. He was pressed against the couch, Hotch's body moving just a little closer to where they were plastered against each other. Spencer leaned back so that he could breath without his stomach brushing Hotch's on every single inhale. 

"Hotch."

"Emily," Hotch said. There was a lot of background noise but then another very clear female voice was asking for a drink order. Hotch leaned in to his opposite ear. "All I have to do is say the word and Henry will be motherless, Spencer. Do I need to say the word or are you going to stay here?"

"I'll stay," Spencer whispered. 

"Thank you, Emily. I'll be in contact in the morning."

"Sure thing, Hotch." The woman, Emily said and then the call was ended. 

"If you think of giving yourself up, JJ, Henry and Will will be dead. I'll make sure that Diana is put into one of the worst facilities for her disease. And they'll all know exactly why they are being treated like they are. You are mine now, Spencer and it's time you start understanding that."

Pain flared on his thigh and Spencer looked down to see a needle sticking out of his leg with Hotch pressing the plunger on it. He had no clue what was in it but then he started to feel drowsy. Hotch's arm slipped around his waist so that he didn't topple backwards and then there was nothing.

XxXxXxX

Spencer was beginning to hate waking up not knowing where he was. Once his brain had woke up though, he wished that it hadn't. He knew where he was and given that both of his arms felt asleep when he tried to move them, he was fairly certain that Hotch had cuffed both of his hands this time. He didn't open his eyes because he really didn't want to see exactly where he was. He tried to curl up a little and found that his hands were tied, just not like he'd thought. They were tied together with a knot that he had no chance of getting out of but looking up, he saw that the rope was worked through the bars on the bed frame and then disappeared underneath of it. He pulled his arms down as far as the slack would allow and curled up. He couldn't get to the knot with his teeth and the knot was tight right at his wrists so there was no way of working it loose. Hotch hadn't taken any chances this time. 

"Awake?" Hotch asked from the other side of the room. Spencer turned his head to see him sitting at the table again. He was dressed in the suits he wore every other time that Spencer had seen him. 

"Yes," Spencer answered, remembering what happened the last time he hadn't answer him.

"Good. Hungry? I have the room service menu for today here." 

Spencer's stomach growled before he could answer and the smile on Hotch's face was radiant. The man stood up and Spencer started to move back to the corner of the bed again. There was just enough slack to where he could curl into a ball when he sat up. Hotch laid the menu down on the bed and then held out his glasses. Spencer realized that he hadn't had them at all when he'd tried to escape, he'd been so focused on getting out. He was farsighted so it was the up close that he had issues with and Hotch knew that. Hotch had been watching him a lot closer than he thought. It sent a shiver down his back as he thought about what else the man could know about him. He reached out with his bound wrists, stopping only when the slack stopped him. Hotch held the glasses out a little farther and Spencer grabbed the glasses to slip them on. He looked down at the menu but didn't move to pick it up.

"Oatmeal and orange juice. And something for my headache please." 

Hotch's eyes softened and he got up off the bed, moving to the bathroom. Spencer heard running water but nothing else. The water shut off and then Hotch reappeared with a glass of water and his hand wrapped in a fist. He set both the glass and what looked like two Tylenol on the table and then backed up. Spencer scooted over and could just barely reach the glass after he popped the pills in his mouth. He drank the whole glass. The water was cold and Spencer hadn't realized how thirsty he was until it was gone and he wanted more. He looked at the glass and tried to form the words to ask for more. He looked up and Hotch wasn't there anymore. Spencer frowned and set the glass back on the table before he went back to his corner. Hotch's too light footsteps came back into the room and Spencer looked up to see him holding large bottle of water. He cracked the seal on it and handed it over. It was from the fridge cold and Spencer didn't hesitate to drink nearly a third of it in one go. It was one of those thirty three ounce bottles. Hotch set the cap down and Spencer was able to work it back on, holding the bottle between his legs and using his hands to twist the cap on. 

"After we eat, I need to go do a few things, but I'll be back within two hours. If not, Emily will come and see if you need anything. I want to trust you but I can't, so for now you are going to stay tied to the bed. Housekeeping will be by later and they aren't going to release you. They are used to finding young men tied to my bed." Hotch sat down on the bed and reached out. Spencer tried to move away but the wall stopped him. Hotch's palm cupped his jaw and then his thumb started to trace his lips. "Do I need to gag you when I leave?"

Spencer shook his head no. 

"Too bad. I like my things bound and gagged. Maybe another time."

"Do you truly get off on raping men?" Spencer asked before he could stop himself. Hotch's eyes narrowed but the hand on him didn't tighten, didn't hurt him. 

"Despite what rumors circulate around, I don't rape. My partners are all willing and so will you be by the time that I have you. You'll beg for me to touch you, kiss you, and then finally fuck you."

"Keep on dreaming, Hotch."

"Aaron. My name is Aaron. You will call me Aaron."

"I'll do no such thing." 

Instead of lashing out, Hotch just laughed. He stood up from the bed, taking the warmth of his hand with him and Spencer hated it but he wanted that hand back. His stupid soul and it wanting the man who had kidnapped him, threatened those he loved, and was insane. The man left the bedroom, shutting the door behind him. His stomach growled again and he tried to silence it. 

The door opened twelve minutes later and Hotch was carrying a tray of food. The smell of oatmeal assaulted his nose and his stomach growled even louder. Instead of going to the bed, Hotch went to the table and set it down. Spencer could see two bowls and two glasses of juice as well as a carafe of coffee and a mug. Once he had it all set out on the table, Hotch turned to him. Spencer watched him cross the room and he sat down on the bed again, this time reaching out for Spencer. His hands were gentle as he undid the knot that was keeping him tied to the bed. When the man got up off the bed, he didn't try and run, instead Spencer got up and moved to the table. He didn't sit down though. One side had the coffee and he wasn't sure if it was for him or not. He jumped when he felt a hand on his lower back, directing him to the seat that had the coffee at it. He tried to figure out exactly what game the man was playing but it had his head spinning. So he just decided to go with the flow. 

Hotch spent the entire meal working on something on his tablet. Spencer ate quickly, his stomach craving the food. He held off on the coffee until after his belly was full on oatmeal and orange juice. Just as he was preparing his cup, he realized that there was sugar and creamer there. He shivered again at the implications. His stomach started to churn so he pushed those thoughts away. He curled his legs up to his chest and looked everywhere but at Hotch while he sipped his coffee. 

Spencer didn't move when Hotch stood up from the table and he didn't look when Hotch left the room. The urge to run filled him but his brain nixed it. He needed time. He needed time to figure out how to save JJ, Will, Henry, and his mom. Getting the first three out of harm's way was going to be easy. Will could get them to New Orleans easy and he'd made comments about knowing enough unsavory people that he would be safe. The problem was his mother. He needed a way to get her to safety. 

A tablet was slid into his view and Spencer had to refocus his eyes to read the screen. It was his bank account. It was empty. Spencer looked up at Hotch in shock. He slammed his coffee cup down onto the table and stood up. Hotch laid the tablet down and caught the punch that Spencer threw easy. Spencer was spun into the wall with his arm wrenched up behind his back. Hotch was plastered along his back.

"It's all safe, your checking account, your savings account. It's all in a safe account that my money manager is managing."

"I pay for my mother's care out of that account!" Spencer screamed as he tried to fight again. He threw his other hand back behind his head and tried to scratch or hit whatever he could get his fingers on. Hotch grabbed that hand and wrenched it up with the other. 

"Well you are a very intelligent man, Doctor Reid and I figured that if I could cripple you in all ways, it would be better."

"You think that getting my mother thrown out of her home is going to get me to let you fuck me?" Spencer tried to shove back with his legs but Hotch was much stronger than him. 

"Oh, she's not getting thrown out. Her care is now paid for out of my personal account. I even got her moved up into a better room. She'll want for nothing as long as she is there."

"I just have to do what you say?" Spencer spat at him. 

"Of course."

"How is that different than rape?" Spencer asked, giving in that he wasn't going to get away. Hotch leaned into him more and slipped a leg between his. "Just because I let you fuck me because you say I need to is no different than rape."

Hotch's breath wrapped around his ear, "But I'm not going to tell you to let me fuck you. I told you. I'm going to make you beg for it." Hotch shifted his hold on Spencer's wrists so that he could press his hands up onto the wall right at head level. Spencer could see his wrist perfectly. Where Spencer's soulmate countdown mark had been was a mess of mangled skin. He held in his sigh of relief that Hotch didn't know that he was his soulmate. He had no clue how long his wrist had been like that. He might have even done it on his own. Given their age difference, it would have been very evident that he'd have a long time to wait to see his soulmate. "You are going to want me to fuck you."

"Over my dead body."

"I'm not into necrophilia. If I let you go, are you going to attack me?" Hotch was laughing as he asked.

"No."

"Damn. I wanted to hold you like this longer." But Hotch stepped back and released him. When Spencer turned around, he was straightening his shirt and jacket before looking up at Spencer. "Please go over to the bed so I can tie you back up."

"I won't leave the room. I promise. Please don't tie me up," Spencer begged.

"We shall see about that tomorrow, but for today, I am not taking any chances." Hotch motioned at the bed again and Spencer moved over to it. He sat down and let Hotch tied him back up. When the man stepped away, he moved back to the corner of the bed. He didn't look at him and didn't even acknowledge the man when he set down a few more bottles of water and then a tablet on the bed. 

"The wifi is disabled and it takes a twenty three number code to access it again. I've loaded up the last year's new releases in fiction and nonfiction books on there. I figure it can keep you happy for today at least." 

Spencer didn't look, didn't move and after a few minutes of silence, Hotch left. Spencer could hear someone talking out in the room and then the outer door shut. Spencer wondered who he had been talking to. He waited for someone to come in, but no one did. After fifteen minutes, he was focusing too much on his situation and grabbed the tablet. He tried for nearly an hour to access anything but the Kindle app, but he couldn't. He gave up and opened up a book on Henry VIII. He was most of the way through it when a man opened the door. Spencer eyed him as he started to clean the room. He didn't take his eye off the man the entire time he was in the bedroom and it wasn't until he went to the bathroom that Spencer relaxed. When the man came back out with a knife in hand, Spencer was ready. He chucked one of the bottles of water at the man's head and then he crossed the bed to grab the lamp. He jerked the cord from the wall and then as the man stumbled at him, bleeding from the head, Spencer broke the lamp over his head. The man went down in a heap and Spencer grabbed his knife from where it clattered to the floor. He cut himself free and fled to the bathroom. He snatched the tablet as he went and tried to connect to the app that was a link between phone and the tablet. He cried out in happiness when it linked and he was greeted with the sight of a table. Spencer snapped a picture with the tablet then flipped the screen to take a picture of Hotch's face. Hotch accessed the app from his phone and was looking back at him. Spencer opened the door and aimed the camera at the man on the floor with broken shards of the lamp. When the app went dead, Spencer closed the door and locked it again. 

The sounds of people in the outer room told him that someone had arrived. A woman demanded that he open the door but he didn't. He crawled into the tub and covered his ears. He didn't want this. He didn't want this at all. This wasn't his life. The closest that he got to the mob world was the fee that Will paid for protection for the club. He tossed the tablet out of the tub, not caring if it broke or not and he curled into a ball, letting the tears out. He cried until he had nothing left in him and still he didn't look up. It wasn't until he heard a small thump that he looked up. Sitting on the edge of the tub was a wet rag. Hotch was leaning against the sink, as far away from Spencer as he could get. 

"That should never have happened. The housekeeper that I allow into my room is on vacation so no one is supposed to come in. Instead someone else messed up on the assignments and used it to slip into my room."

"Where is he?"

"Dead. Emily got worried when you didn't open the door but she didn't break down the door. Housekeeping let me in. I don't care how long you stay in here but I would like the door unlocked. You can also keep the knife if you wish. I have clothes for you and they are on the counter." Hotch then left him alone.

Spencer grabbed the rag and used it to wipe his face. He didn't feel bad about using it to blow his nose either. When he was done he tossed it towards the hamper in the corner. The pile of clothes caught his eye and he wondered exactly what clothes Hotch had got for him. He pushed himself up to his feet and stepped out of the tub. There was a pair of slacks on top and when he lifted them he found that they were very soft. The sweater underneath looked soft as well and he touched it before he picked it up. Underneath it was a pair of underwear and socks. The socks were mismatching. It was creepy the level of information that Hotch knew about him. If it had been any other person in Spencer's life, he would have found it charming. That he knew his likes. It was all things that anyone who was paying attention would have known but having it come from an insane killer was just too much. Spencer tossed the clothes on the floor and kicked at them. He kicked and kicked and kicked even once the clothes were in a corner. He kept on kicking until his foot hurt and then he kept going. He felt hands on him, he tried to fight out of the hold but he gave up. He just slumped in the arms that had him. 

The world tilted and he felt himself being carried to the bedroom. He was tenderly laid on the bed and Spencer didn't even look as hands touched his foot. It hurt and he didn't care. He felt a hand on his own and then pain. He turned to look and Spencer saw that one of his fingers was swollen. He'd done something to it and hadn't known. It was a thinner hand on his and he followed it up into the face of Emily. He looked down at his foot to see Hotch cleaning blood off several sites of broken skin. He looked at his toes, several were broken. He didn't care. He just turned his head to face the wall. When a blanket was draped over him, he curled into a ball and just laid there. 

XxXxXxX

Days blended together. Waking up in bed, eating whatever breakfast Hotch ordered for them, sitting in bed reading whatever new books had been loaded to the new Kindle he'd been given. Some days Hotch joined him for lunch, others he didn't. Afternoons he watched whatever was on TV. When Hotch came back for the evening they ate dinner. Most nights the other man then went to the club. Every other day, Spencer was allowed to call and talk to JJ with Hotch listening in. Spencer told her he was taking a vacation. She was worried about him but it was better than bringing her into his life. He'd talk with Hotch on whatever topic the man wanted. He couldn't tell a soul what they talked about because it didn't matter. He just hoped that whatever was coming would come quick. 

The only physical contact he had was the morning and evening kisses to his cheek from his soulmate. Emily never entered the bedroom and when she was around he never left it. His foot started to heal, he'd broken three toes and had dislocated a finger by hitting the wall, even if he didn't remember.

Hotch had brought him more clothes that he never wore but he did stay in his pajama pants and a t-shirt the whole of each day. 

On day nine he woke up before Hotch and moved out to the kitchen to find the man asleep on a pull out bed. He passed him and started coffee. Normally, Aaron ordered a pot to be had with breakfast and Spencer made the pots after, but he decided he wanted one when he got out of the shower. The shower was quick and he decided to change into real clothes. He went to the dresser that Hotch had put all of his clothes in. He found a pair of slacks and that first sweater that he'd been given to wear. He went to the mirror and looked at himself. His face was fuller than it had been in a long time. Hotch made sure he didn't forget to eat and it was evident. The pants were better fitting than anything he had owned. It wasn't hard to know that the clothes were expensive. 

The smell of coffee drew him from the bedroom. He fixed himself a cup and then opened the cabinet that held cereal. He snacked on it throughout the day but today he was hungry when he woke up. He filled a bowl, found the milk, and moved to the balcony with his breakfast and his coffee. He sat on the lounger that was there and listened to the city waking up as well as going back to sleep. He could see the night workers making their way home while the day workers were just getting started. He wasn't sure what was different about him today that wasn't there the days before. 

"Stockholm syndrome, I'd say," Spencer said aloud to no one. He finished off his bowl of cereal and just sat there, watching the world below him as it went along it's way. He sipped at his coffee. He wasn't so focused on the world below that he didn't hear Hotch moving up behind him. "You don't have to sleep on the couch, you know."

"I told you, I won't force you, not that way."

"And sleeping in bed with me will make you force me?" Spencer asked. He didn't turn around to look at the man and he didn't even startle when Hotch sat down behind him on the lounger. He could feel the heat from the man. 

"You went through something traumatic and sometimes that makes one do things they will come to later regret and I didn't want to be that with you."

"Why do you care? You are just going to kill me when you tire of me like every other plaything you've had?" Spencer asked. 

"Maybe you are the one that I'll want to keep forever," Hotch said as he leaned closer. Spencer felt a hand close around his hip and he turned to look at him. There was a look on Hotch's face that Spencer had never seen before it made him want to kiss him. He leaned in and brushed their lips. Before he could pull away, Hotch had a hold of his head, keeping him there, claiming his mouth in a rough kiss. Spencer gasped as the feelings that skin to skin contact was giving him that allowed Hotch to slip his tongue between his lips. He groaned as the man leaned back on the lounger, pulling Spencer with him. Spencer twisted his body to where he could straddle the man's waist. His brain was screaming at him to stop but his body was singing out at the contact. Hotch's other hand settled on his waist, pulling him in and holding him as close as he could get him. At least now he was feeling something. Spencer felt owned, possessed and not in a bad way. If this was how he was with all of his playthings, it wasn't any wonder why they all flocked to him. Why even with the rumors of what happened to the others, Hotch was never without someone in his bed.

"Don't you already have me forever?" Spencer asked and he regretted it as soon as he said it. Hotch went from relaxed to stiff in a second and the man looked at him with an unreadable look in his eyes. Spencer wasn't sure what that meant. 

"I won't be back for lunch today. I have a few jobs that I need to do and I want to be done before tonight." Hotch's hand moved up from waist to stomach, slipping under Spencer's shirt and just the touch of fingers on his skin had him shivering. 

"What's so special about tonight?" Spencer closed his eyes to just feel fingers on him, the way his blood pumped from it. He wondered if Hotch felt any of this or if he was too unfeeling to be able to. He couldn't ask because he wasn't even going to give him that much of a hold over him. If Hotch knew, there wasn't anything that he couldn't do to Spencer. If he didn't already know that Spencer was his soulmate, Spencer wasn't going to tell him. 

"Tonight is a party at NOLA. You are going to be going. Emily will be done with her daily jobs before me so she's going to pick up your suit for tonight."

"I'm going?" Spencer asked. Hotch hadn't even talked about taking him out anywhere, but he thought that he'd never take him to NOLA. JJ and Will would never accept that he'd said yes to Hotch. 

"Of course. It's been two weeks since I've had anything pretty on my arm and the vultures are circling ever closer."

"And what's to stop you from bedding one of those vultures? I have no say in this."

"I don't cheat," Hotch said and the hand on his head tightened. The man stared into Spencer's eyes.

"It's not like this is a relationship," Spencer pointed out. Hotch's eyes narrowed again. "You kidnapped me and what I am going to do if you want sex? You say you don't rape, that means seduction. You've not even tried that with me."

"Because I want sex with someone who before today hasn't even cared if he showered or not. You had to adjust to a new way of living of a new life."

"So you do this every single time?"

"You are a special case. You are the only one I have ever kidnapped but you are also someone that I want more than anyone else. If I had left you out there, Doyle would have found you and killed you and I couldn't stand that." Hotch nuzzled in at his throat. "I've wanted you from the moment I saw you throw that man out of NOLA for trying to talk his girlfriend into a threesome with another woman and not caring if she wanted to or not. You know that I like strong things and you are strong because any weaker and you would have slit your wrists with that knife after the man tried to kill you." Hotch pulled him down to lay on his body. The hand on his head started to rub and it was relaxing him. "Whatever reputation I have in your eyes, I won't hurt you. I don't kill my playthings. The only one that has died is the one in the club and a rival poisoned him. The others decide to leave town when we part our ways."

There was a lie in that somewhere but Spencer couldn't figure out where. He just relaxed down, he was done fighting his body and it's want of Hotch. He was just done fighting.

"The party tonight is suit and tie, we've rented out the back room at the club and it'll be mainly just bigwigs back there. You are more than welcome to do whatever you want. Depending on the time I get done, Emily might take you to the club before me."

"What do you expect of me tonight?" That was what Spencer needed time to understand. To come to terms. To figure out what he was going to tell JJ.

"To be the pretty man you always are when you are there. To make everyone jealous that I have you. Showing up with Emily will keep most people off of you, but if you find that someone isn't taking no as an answer just tell them you are mine. I don't drink but that doesn't mean that you don't need to."

"You are usually very tactile with your things." Just as Spencer said it Hotch's hand moved from where it had settled on his hip to cup his ass. 

"I am, but you are not. I don't know what it's going to be like. Seeing you sleeping in my bed, alone and scared and unable to do anything to help you. If I let you walk out that door right now, you would leave. You'd go back to your daily life and you'd get killed. I can't say that I'm an altruistic man because this arrangement gets me what I want, but knowing that you were dead, it would hurt me."

Spencer wasn't sure what to say to that so instead he kissed him. He'd give in and he knew it. It was only a matter of time before he gave in and allowed Hotch to have him. 

XxXxXxX

Emily was right there behind him as he entered NOLA. He tried to settle down but he really couldn't. He instead looked at those gathered around the edge of the back room, trying to see who was in there. Emily didn't rush him as he stopped when JJ and Will came out of the back. There were several waiters and waitresses around and more than enough bartenders. They were both dressed to impress which meant they were there just to keep an eye on the party. 

Spencer tried to step back but Emily was right there behind him. 

"You are not backing out. He's going to be here in thirty minutes and you are going to be there, smiling." Emily was keeping him there. With a hand on his shoulder. 

Spencer was getting ready to head right into the back room when JJ turned and spotted him. He was looking right into her eyes when she caught who he was with. She stopped forward movement so Spencer moved towards her. He went right to her and hugged her. 

"I can't explain and I am sorry I have worried you."

"That's Prentiss. Hotch's second. What are you doing with Hotch's second in command?"

"All I can say is that there is something big going on. When I can explain I will but there are too many ears here and..." The sounds in the club changed and Spencer turned to see Hotch striding in. He was early. He was really early. His eyes scanned the club and when they stopped on him, a look came over his face that Spencer couldn't describe. He turned and went right for Spencer. Spencer stayed where he was. 

"Mrs. Jareau, thank you so much for keeping Spencer company." Hotch's voice was like honey as he stepped close. "I was late and afraid he'd be mad."

"You are welcome, Hotch," JJ said, her voice cautious and unsure. 

"And you. I'm sorry I am late." Hotch didn't give him a chance to say anything before he placed a chaste kiss on his cheek, his arms wrapping around him. Spencer could see JJ and how upset she was but Spencer had to play along. He wrapped his arms around Hotch and hugged him back. JJ's eyes tracked his hands and Spencer knew the only way to get her to shut up was to make sure she saw. He turned his wrist and tugged up on his sleeve. JJ's eyes widened and then she looked ready to cry. He pleaded with his eyes for her to be quiet. She nodded. Hotch pulled out of the hug and took his mouth in a kiss that left no discussion that he was Hotch's. "I'll make up for it tonight."

"Spence, before you leave, Henry has some drawings for you. I have them in the office."

"He can be all yours, Mrs. Jareau, as soon as I make the rounds." Hotch wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled Spencer along. The next hour was Spencer being introduced to person after person who was there for the party. He would never forget their names, and many he made sure he never would. He wasn't aware of how bad Foyet had corrupted the people of Las Vegas. Spencer was going to figure a way out of all of this and save his family in the process. 

"Doctor Reid, did you want a drink?" Stacy, JJ's head waitress asked.

"Just my normal coffee." 

Stacy smiled at him before she moved back towards the door that lead to the kitchen. 

"Does she always call you Doctor Reid?" Hotch asked, his voice low in his ear. He hadn't realized that Hotch was that close to him. He'd wandered away while Hotch had been talking to one of the casino owners. The older man's arm wrapped around his waist, pulling him back into his body. 

"When there are parties going on yes, other wise it's Spencer. Most of the staff does."

"And if I wanted them to not be that informal with you?" Hotch asked.

"Then you will have to take that up with JJ and Will." Spencer thought for a few seconds that he might have spoke wrong until Hotch started to laugh.

"There is the Spencer I want to see. If you want to talk to JJ, go now. I'll want you in my lap out there in a little while. Just a little business to attend in here first before Foyet lets me go for the night." Hotch caught his face and tilted it up and back so that he could kiss him. Spencer got caught up in the kiss and Hotch had to pull away from him. "You tempt me as no one ever has. To seduce. To not care that you really don't want me. To make you pant for me so that you don't even think about the fact that you truly do despise me."

"Hotch," Spencer gasped.

"Aaron when we are here, remember?" Hotch cupped the side of his face for a few seconds before letting go. "Go out to JJ before I forget myself."

Spencer stumbled away from him. He met Stacy at the door and took his coffee. JJ and Will were seated at the table that was reserved for them and friends. He went over to them and took shelter in the interior of the round table. Will getting up to let him in.

"What can you tell me?"

"Not much." Spencer looked around and then laid a hand on Will's knee under the table. Will was good at morse code. It was how they talked a lot in the club. Spencer tapped out in short that the family was in danger if he didn't stay with Hotch and that his mother was being threatened. Anything he did at the moment would result in death. That he needed time to figure it all out and that he needed to know that JJ, Will, and Henry were safe with his mother. That they needed to keep their heads down. That he's to tell JJ that when they are home, safe. "Understood?"

"Always," Will said. The man's eyes stayed right on the doorway where Hotch was. "So now that you are in the lap of luxury, what do you do to keep yourself occupied?"

JJ looked like she was going to say something but Spencer just shook his head and pleaded with her again. She nodded and mouthed that she would wait. 

"I read. I get to do whatever I want."

"Spence," Will said sharply and nodded towards the room. Spencer looked up to see Hotch making his way towards them. 

"Oh, I never got to give you the pictures," JJ said as Hotch neared the table. 

"We are not in any sort of rush. That'll give Mr. LaMontagne and I a chance to get to know one another better." Hotch stopped on the side of the booth that JJ was on and waved for them to exit it. JJ scooted around and slipped away before Hotch could hold out a hand to help her out. Spencer though wasn't as lucky. Hotch kept his hand out and he took it. His body was brought right into Hotch's arms. "Don't rush on my account."

Hotch was playing the perfect gentleman but the words from before ghosted over Spencer's mind. He pulled from Hotch's hold with a kiss to his lips and then he followed after JJ into the office of the club. As soon as the door was shut behind them. Spencer ran right into JJ's arms and wrapped her up in a hug.

"It's not safe here is it?" JJ whispered in his ear.

"Given Hotch's paranoia? No. Will will explain it all when you get home," Spencer whispered back. He pulled back from her hold. "I miss Henry. I hope I can talk Aaron into letting me spend a day with him soon."

JJ caught on to the name change easily and she moved to the desk drawer that was Spencer's for the various things that he did for the club, including the end of month budgets. There on top was a folder. She handed that over and Spencer looked at his Godson's drawing that showed him playing baseball and reading in a corner. Spencer memorized every single line of the pictures because he wasn't going to take them back to the hotel with him for Hotch to use against him. 

"Will you put them in my box?" Spencer asked. JJ's face looked like she was going to cry but she nodded. 

"How is your mom?"

"She's doing well. We had a few issues with letters and my new address but it's all good now. Everything is really, really good." Spencer wiped at his eyes and JJ pulled him back into a hug. Spencer didn't want to let her go so he didn't. He kept her right there in his arms until the urge to cry passed him. He'd do whatever he had to do to keep them safe, even if it meant losing himself in the process. 

Ten minutes later, JJ and Spencer left the office and found that Will and Hotch had moved from the original table to the one that Hotch usually sat at. Spencer knew what was expected of him and after JJ sat down and moved her chair closer to Will, he sat down on Hotch's lap. The older man's arm wrapped around his waist and held him close, dropping a kiss just behind his ear. 

"Will and I were talking that you haven't seen Henry in a while and we were thinking that on Saturday, you and I could take him to the Zoo. A new section of it has been opened. If I remember correctly, it's Africa," Hotch said with his face focused on Spencer but his eyes darted over to JJ. Spencer could only stare at him, wondering if he really gave a shit about him seeing his Godson or if this was another ploy to make him feel indebted to Hotch and get him another step closer to his bed. 

In the end, he didn't care because he wanted to see Henry. He wanted to see his Godson just one more time and a day at the zoo was perfect. He could figure out how to ignore the fact that Hotch was there and just enjoy his Godson.

They didn't get back to the hotel until well after midnight and Spencer had stripped down and laid in bed, not even realising that Hotch laid down with him, so used to his body alongside his from playing the part of his plaything all night long. 

XxXxXxX

Saturday came quicker than Spencer thought that it would. He thought the days would drag but instead they hadn't. After getting back from the club where he'd been drunk on the bond between them, as one sided as it was, Hotch had finally given him access to his laptop where he was able to work on a few papers that were going to be due soon. Hotch hadn't even read over them before he submitted them. After that Spencer had spent three days researching all he could into soulmates. 

There was no case of a serial killer or psychopath having a soulmate bond. He couldn't find evidence of a normal person having a bond to either one of them as well. Whether it was because they never found them and their clock counted down to a day long in the future or they kept quiet about the fact that they had a bond with a killer, Spencer would never know. 

So he started a document that was in a code that only he understood and had it set to be password protected. If Hotch wanted access to it, he would have the chance to enter in the wrong password and it would delete itself. Hotch could throw whatever fit he wanted about it, but it would be gone. 

Hotch had been in contact with Will about the pick-up and drop off time for Henry at the end of the day. It was an entire day. Henry needed to be back at bedtime. 

They slept every single night in the same bed, Hotch wrapped around him and Spencer knew that not much would be needed for him to give in. He woke every morning aching hard and Hotch's own erection pressed against him. The man never pressured, instead he allowed Spencer to take the bathroom first to get ready for the day which included jerking off in the shower to the remembrances of Hotch's kisses. 

Every night they went back to the club where he spent most of his time in Hotch's lap and on occasion slow dancing during one of the slower songs. That had shocked him as Hotch had never done that with his things before. The dancing. JJ and Will watched him with a close eye and Spencer knew that they were trying to find a way out for him. 

"Are you about ready?" Hotch asked.

Spencer turned from the mirror where he was looking at his changed face. He almost didn't recognize himself in it but, he did at the same time because all that had really changed was the way that he looked at himself. His eyes took in the clothes that he was wearing. There was a chill in the air and there would be all day so Hotch had picked up a new sweater for him. It was thinner and paired with it was a dress shirt to wear under. A new pair of jeans, soft as he ever felt, finished off the clothes. A new pair of deep purple Converse completed the outfit. He'd gotten used to the fact that Hotch liked to buy him clothes and now that he was actually dressing, Hotch found every single reason he could to buy him things. 

"I'm ready," Spencer said as he turned to face Hotch. Hotch was dressed in a dark green pullover, jeans, and loafers. He looked very nice. Something must have flashed in his eyes because the man stepped up and pinned him to the bathroom counter and kissed him. Spencer raised his arms and wrapped them around Hotch's neck, holding him there. 

Several minutes later, Hotch pulled back from him and buried his head in his neck. He said nothing, just stood there breathing in his scent before he stepped back from him.

"If we want to get there before they open, we need to leave." Hotch turned and left the bathroom and Spencer was confused for several seconds before he figured that it was Hotch trying to stay as noble as he could given what the man did for a living. 

Hotch always drove, everywhere they went. He didn't trust having a driver as they could be paid off to kill him, he said. His car was probably armored, but Spencer never asked. Spencer always sat in the passenger seat in the front, where Hotch could touch him if he wanted. Without prompting from Spencer, Hotch stopped in front of the modest house that JJ and Will owned. Henry was staring out the front window and when the car stopped and Spencer got out, he ran from the window. The front door was thrown open and Henry ran down waiting for Spencer to cross into the yard. Hotch stayed in the car. 

Spencer picked up Henry and held him close in a big hug. Henry was smiling and giggling, not understanding why Spencer was holding him so close. When Spencer was afraid that continuing to hug him would have him cry, he set the boy down. "Are you ready to go?"

"Mommy has my bag. Just need to get it and yes."

The sound of a car door opening had Spencer turning back to see Hotch getting out. Spencer tensed but the smile on Hotch's face made him relax just a little. 

"Hello, Henry," Hotch said as he came even with them. Henry backed up into Spencer's legs and looked at the new man warily. "My name is Aaron."

"Who are you?"

Hotch looked at Spencer with a quirked eyebrow.

"This is my boyfriend, Henry." Spencer picked up Henry and balanced the boy on his hip. "Henry, Aaron. Aaron, Henry."

"Are you going with us today?"

"Yes, I am. Is that okay?" Hotch asked. 

Spencer wondered if the day would be cut if Henry said no or if Hotch would actually let him go without him. 

"I guess." Henry was looking at him strangely. 

"Thank you. I've been looking forward to this since your parents said that I could meet you. In fact." Hotch reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. Spencer gasped and wanted to step back but he didn't, unsure of what Hotch would do if he did. "I got you a present."

Henry looked at Spencer who nodded before he took the box from Hotch. The boy shifted to where he could use both hands to open the box. Inside was leather cord with a small charm on it. The charm was a phoenix made of what looked like platinum. Henry smiled and plucked it out, handing the now empty box back over to Hotch. Hotch smiled and it disappeared into the same pocket that he had got it from. Henry looked the charm over and smiled at Hotch. 

"Thank you, Mr. Aaron. I really like it. It's like that story that Uncle Spencer told me about."

"Yes. He told me about it and then I saw this and I thought that you would like it."

"Can you put it on me please?" Henry held out the necklace and Hotch took it from him. He undid the knot at the back and then wrapped it around Henry's neck and knotted it. He was close to Spencer as he did and when he pulled back, he kissed Spencer's lips. Henry giggled and Spencer tickled his side a little before turning to see JJ and Will on the steps. Will's eyes narrowed at the necklace on his son's neck but said nothing. Hotch stepped around them and moved up to kiss JJ's cheek and then shake Will's hand. Will surprised Spencer by pulling the older man in for one of the hugs with arms trapped in between bodies. If he hadn't been watching close, Spencer would have missed that Will whispered something to Hotch. Hotch only smiled and nodded. 

"Mommy, Papa, did you see what Mr. Aaron got me? It's a Phoenix. Just like that story that Uncle Spencer told me."

"I see that. It's lovely," JJ said as she just stared at Hotch. 

"We better get going. Do you have Henry's backpack?" Spencer asked. He just wanted to get away from the stress of this. He had no clue that Hotch had bought Henry a necklace, a very expensive necklace at that. He figured that once Henry got home, Will or JJ would put it up and if Hotch wanted another day with Henry and Spencer, only then would it be brought out. 

"Here," Will said as he handed it over. Spencer hadn't seen it in his hand before that so it had probably been behind him. "Have fun Henry. Listen to Uncle Spencer and Mr. Aaron, okay."

"Yes, Papa." Will leaned in for a hug and JJ followed, kissing his cheek and then Spencer's. 

"Do you need his booster seat?" JJ asked, looking at Spencer.

"Oh, I didn't grab it from my car. Shoot," Spencer said. He looked towards where he saw that it wasn't in JJ's car. 

"I figured that you might forget that so I grabbed mine from the car.” JJ turned to grab it from inside the house but Aaron's voice stopped her.

"I bought one," Aaron said. Spencer turned to look at him and the blinding smile on his face. "I figured that Spencer would forget to grab his from his car and I thought that if this was going to become a thing, it would be best to have one in my car as well. It's already set up in the back seat."

"Okay then. I guess we are ready. Are you ready to go to the zoo?" Spencer asked, not wanting to dwell on what Aaron was doing. It was a nice gesture and it spoke of them being a long term thing. He didn't want to be. He wanted to escape and he wanted to do it soon. The only way he knew it to happen was to figure out why the Doyle's wanted him dead and work from there. 

"I am, Uncle Spencer. I really wanna see the lion."

"We will." Hotch promised. He walked ahead of them a little as they got closer to the car, opening the backseat door so that Spencer could buckle Henry in. When he shut the door, he found that Hotch was standing around the side of the car, holding Spencer's door open. Spencer went around the back of the car to get in. "Don't forget to act like a loving boyfriend."

"I won't." 

"Hey," Hotch said. Spencer looked up at him and Hotch kissed him. It was chaste but it made Spencer's head spin. "I care for you a lot, Spencer. I want you to have fun today with Henry."

Spencer didn't say anything. He just slipped into the passenger seat and buckled up. He started a conversation with Henry about schooling that lasted all the way until they got to the gates for the zoo. Spencer didn't even attempt to pull out his wallet. While he had cash in there, given to him by Hotch, he knew the man would pay. What he didn't expect was for season passes for the three of them to be bought. Including passes for the rides that were scattered around. Hotch spared no expense when getting them into the zoo and they even stopped at the shop inside. Hotch bought hats for all three of them and a little stuffed eagle that Henry could carry around. Spencer stored the backpack in one of the storage lockers after renting it for the day. Henry wrapped his arms around the eagle when Hotch handed it to him. When the cashier handed over the hats, Hotch put Henry's on him before the one on himself. When Spencer walked back over to them, Hotch held up his and Spencer allowed him to put it on, tucking his hair back behind his ears as he did. 

Hotch was the consummate boyfriend the entire day. From anyone looking at them, they never would have thought anything different than they were two men in love. An hour into the day, Spencer stopped acting. He let the rush of the day overwhelm him and he just let go. Lunch was eaten at the jungle themed restaurant at the center of the zoo with Hotch keeping his arm around Spencer's shoulder nearly the whole time. It was a wonderful day. 

A half asleep Henry was dropped off to his parents and then Spencer and Hotch went back to the hotel. Spencer was pushed into the door to the bedroom as soon as he stepped inside. He didn't fight it at all. Not the feelings that spread down his body or the hands that worked under his clothes. He instead worked his hands underneath Hotch's clothes, feeling the hard planes of his stomach. He remembered how fit Hotch was from seeing him naked that first night. 

"Spencer," Aaron gasped as he pulled out of the kiss. 

"Aaron." Spencer tried to pull him back in for a kiss but Hotch's head stayed back. The man fought him. Hotch looked his face over for something and Spencer didn't even know what to try and fake on his face to get the man to give him what he wanted. 

"Do you want this? Truly? You aren't thinking that if you let me fuck you, I'm going to let you go?" Hotch's face was concerned. 

"I know you won't and I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of waking up every morning in your bed, cock hard and aching and taking care of it in the shower." Spencer leaned in and kissed him like he'd been denying himself doing. He pressed himself into Hotch's body, letting himself go. All he could feel was the hard body pressing back into him. All he could hear was the sound of their clothes rubbing against themselves and the pounding of his own heart. All he could taste was the slight sweet of the slushie that they had shared there at the end at the zoo. All he could smell was the scent of Hotch, the same cologne that he always wore along with the slight musk that he'd worked up while moving around the zoo. All he could see was the darkness from his closed eyes. 

Then his world rotated as he was lifted up by his thighs. He grabbed at Hotch's shoulders as the man carried him to the bed. He kept his lips sealed against Hotch's, the thrusting of the tongue against his own causing his cock to throb in his pants. Spencer went into freefall, his eyes shooting open and seeing Hotch looking down at him. He reached down and started to work at his pants and belt as he kicked off his shoes. He watched as Hotch kicked his own off but his hands didn't go to his pants. Spencer spread his knees as he got his zipper to the bottom. Hotch got on his knees on the edge of the bed and reached up, taking Spencer's hands and laying them on the bed at his sides. He laid his hands on Spencer's knees and ran them down the inside of his thighs before taking his cock in his hand. 

Spencer felt like he was on fire, his blood rushed in his veins as Hotch's fingers wrapped around his cock. 

"Hotch..." Spencer gasped as the older man leaned over him. He thrust up into his hand and gasped again. Hotch covered his mouth with his own and Spencer reached up to pull him down just a little farther. 

"Say my name, Spencer. Please," Hotch begged as his hand worked Spencer ever closer to orgasm. 

"Aaron." Spencer came with a gasp into Hotch's mouth. He tried to reach out and work on Hotch's pants but the man grabbed his hands and laid them down again. 

"Stay. Do what I say or this stops." Hotch grabbed his pants and jerked them down his body, taking his socks off after his pants cleared his feet. 

"Yes." Spencer allowed himself to be stripped and then watched as Hotch stripped himself. His last sight of him naked had been blurred by that night of anguish and concussion. He was better than he remembered and Spencer didn't get enough time to look before the man was leaning over him again. Using his shirt to clean the release from his chest and stomach. Hotch loomed over him, staring into his eyes.

"You choose." 

"Choose what?" Spencer asked. He didn't move but he wanted to. He wanted to reach up and pull him down. 

"How we do this. On your back or hands and knees?" 

"Back." 

"Good." Hotch reached towards the drawer and pulled it open. Spencer hadn't looked at the drawer since he'd stopped trying to get away. As soon as he'd stopped, Hotch had stopped tying him to the bed. The older man pulled out a condom and lube. 

"Are you clean?" Spencer asked. If this was the only time they had together, he wanted to feel it all. 

"I'm not risking you. I've not been tested in a while." Hotch spread lube around several of his fingers before dropping his hand down out of Spencer's sight. Spencer wasn't ready for what it actually felt like when that first finger slide inside of him. It was electric. He could feel himself starting to feel arousal again. He'd just came and he was already trying to come again. He wanted to touch. He wanted to feel what Hotch's skin felt like. 

"Please." 

"No." Hotch shook his head. He threaded his hand through Spencer's hair. "No."

"Why?"

Hotch didn't say anything. He leaned down and kissed him again. Spencer tried to fight out of it but he couldn't. One finger became two and Spencer could barely think. Two became three. Hotch pulled them out and Spencer heard the condom wrapper tear. He closed his eyes and prepared to be breached. The head of Hotch's cock pushed into him. He gasped as the cock slipped all the way inside of him. He felt fuller than he'd ever felt when having sex with someone. He expected to feel Hotch pull out and shove back in but he didn't. 

Opening his eyes, Spencer looked to see Hotch hovering right there, staring at him. His eyes softened as Spencer locked his eyes with his. 

"There you are." Hotch smiled at him and leaned down to kiss him. He wrapped Spencer's legs around his waist and started to thrust inside of him. He was already on edge. He felt as if a single touch to his cock was going to send him over. He wondered exactly what Hotch was feeling, if he just thought that it was all normal, the feeling of fire on his skin or if he felt nothing at all. 

Spencer pushed those thoughts down and concentrated on his feelings and cataloguing them to savor for the rest of his life. When Hotch hitched him around a little so he could grip his hips in one hand, holding Spencer still as he fucked him, the touch along with the kisses and the cock inside of him tipped him over. He came with a scream of Aaron and then promptly passed out.

XxXxXxX

Spencer woke up warm and wrapped in Aaron's arms. The light that streamed in from the window across the room told him that it was late in the morning. The possessive leg thrown over his told him that he wasn't going to be able to move without alerting Aaron that he was awake. He wasn't sure if Aaron was awake or not so he shifted a little and the arm that tightened around him and the lips that traced the shell of his ear told him that he was awake. 

"Good morning, Spencer," Aaron rumbled in his ear. He shifted at Spencer's back and the press of a hard cock into his lower back had him trying to move away. Surprisingly, Aaron let him go. He moved away and rolled onto his side to look at him. 

"Morning," Spencer said back.

"Are you having regrets?" Aaron reached out and cupped the side of his face. When Spencer didn't answer at first, Aaron pulled his hand back. He sat up on the bed, the blanket slipped down to just cover his lap but leaving Spencer fully covered. 

"I don't know. I don't know what I am feeling. Kiss me and help me understand." 

Aaron leaned in and kissed him, it was simple and it was chaste. Spencer pressed into him hard and his heart started to race, his hands started to sweat. He wanted everything. He wanted to feel Aaron inside of him again but Aaron pulled away. He looked down at him with fondness on his face. 

"I have to go. I have a few meetings today. I pushed them back to spend a few hours with you so I can't come back for lunch, but we can do dinner out and then go to the club."

"Yes." To Spencer it sounded wonderful. To allow him to just push away all of it.

A shower that wasn't all that quick and then Spencer was kissing Aaron goodbye as he left. He stopped when the door shut and just stood there. He listened and when Aaron didn't come back, he locked the door and moved to his laptop. He worked on papers that he wanted to finish. A chiming from the cell he left in the bedroom had him going to look at it. It was from Aaron telling him the time to be ready, that Emily was busy, and a car would arrive for him to take him to dinner.

Spencer was waiting outside the hotel when a car pulled up. The picture of the driver matched what Aaron had texted him, so he got inside and made himself comfortable. The driver was a talker so he raised the partition and leaned back. The restaurant that the car stopped at was one of the most expensive and most waited on. Aaron was there to open his door and Spencer smiled as he was pulled up out of the car. A not so chaste kiss was placed on his lips. 

"I missed you today. We are going to eat and then go to the club. I'm going to make sure that all the right people see me and then we are going back to the hotel and you aren't getting out of bed until I have had you enough to satisfy me."

"Aaron," Spencer said blushing. Aaron wrapped his arm around him and escorted him into what was the chef's table. He ate whatever was placed on the plate in front of him. There was a glass of wine at his left hand but he drank mostly from the glass of tea that was to its right. He laughed as Aaron told him stories of things he'd seen in his line of work. He told stories of his students. It was a wonderful date.

When they got to the club, Spencer was given his normal glass of tea before he sat in Aaron's lap while him and the other higher ups talked.

"Stevens is the best for the new zone," Aaron said as he took a sip of his whiskey. Spencer listened as names were rattled off of new up and comers as well as a few people who were in Foyet's pocket and vice versa who were in Doyle's. When Aaron listed off five of Foyet's men in a row, Spencer stopped moving. He stopped breathing. He knew those names. 

Spencer started to rattle off names and he heard the silence around him as he did. He stopped when he reached thirty five names.

"How do you know those names?" Aaron asked.

"A list. A list at a restaurant that I went to eat at. I bumped into the table and looked down and look over a list. It was just names. I never thought anything of it but you started to list those people and I knew I knew them. The list just came to me. Your name was at the bottom with first wrote after it. Aaron..." Spencer turned in Aaron's lap and looked at him. But Aaron wasn't looking at him. Aaron was looking across the room and he nodded. 

"Spencer, go with Emily. When you get in the car she will text me all the names. I need you to do that for me. Can you do that for me?"

"Aaron, you are scaring me. What's happening?"

"It's a kill list. We have to move now and I need you safe. Emily will keep you safe." Aaron looked at Emily who seemed to appear right at their side. "Emily, plan Geronimo."

"Yes, Sir." 

Spencer was pulled into Aaron's body and he was kissed. He was kissed like it was going to be his last. His heart shattered and he let Emily take him away. When they were settled in the car that had been waiting to take him and Aaron back to the hotel, Spencer started to recite the names, spellings when she needed them and then a text was sent off. They stopped at the hotel but he was made to stay in the car and she came back with four bags and Spencer's messenger bag. Inside was his laptop, thrown in quick as well as his tablet. 

"Somehow they figured out that you have an eidetic memory and were hunting you. We were never able to figure out why they wanted you but now we know. Now I have to protect you."

"What's happening?" Spencer asked.

"We are leaving. I'll fill you in on more once I know what is going on." Emily was glued to her phone and she never looked up as they drove. They drove for two hours and when the car finally stopped, Emily got out first with her gun drawn. Spencer clutched his bag to his stomach and watched her as she cleared the area around a private small jet. When she was done, the driver escorted Spencer to the jet. He was loaded up onto it. The bags that Emily had brought out of the hotel were loaded into the cargo holds. Spencer reached into his bag and pulled out his MP3 player. He'd left it on charge the day before and it was full. He slipped the buds into his ears and closed his eyes. He wasn't sure where he was going. He blocked out everything about him. He counted the seconds. 

Two hours later, the jet took off. Spencer didn't even open his eyes. Someone had pulled on belt and he'd buckled in. When he felt people moving around he unbuckled. He curled his legs up into himself and sat there. When his belt was jiggled again four hours later, he buckled in again. He stayed there he was. If Emily wanted him to move, she could make him. People shuffled on and off the jet and Spencer figured they were in DC or New York. The jet was closed up again and they took off again. A blanket was dumped over his shoulders and a pillow given to him. At six hours, he had a feeling they were heading for Europe because at six hours in they would have been landing unless they were going to Alaska. And it wasn't out of the realm of possibility but also he figured that it was more likely that they were going to Europe. 

At eight hours into the second flight, the jet landed. Spencer unbuckled and opened his eyes to see Aaron across the row from him. 

"Where have you taken me?" 

"London. Emily has your bags out there and..." Aaron looked away. "We need to depart from the jet."

Spencer stood up on shaky legs. Not having moved for so long. He huffed and took a few cautious steps. When he was sure of himself he grabbed his bag and moved past the seats. He heard Aaron get up and follow him. Aaron had taken him halfway around the world. He didn't know why. That kill list, there was no way that he had saved everyone on it. Had he left them? Left Foyet to twist in the wind to save Spencer? Spencer stopped when he got to the door of the jet. The tarmac was filled with Interpol agents and what looked like other secret service type people.

"Doctor Reid," a posh British voice said. Spencer followed the sound to a skinny man who had wild hair and glasses. He was in a sweater and khaki pants. "Please step over to me."

"Who are you?"

"I am Q. MI6's Quartermaster and I am in charge of finding you a job but given what I have seen of your lectures and your papers, I won't have any issue finding you a home in Q Branch."

"What?" Spencer started down the stairs but he turned back to look at Aaron.

"Agent Hotchner will be debriefing along with Agent Prentiss and then we will discuss everything."

"Agent?" Spencer stopped on the last step and looked up and back at Aaron. The man was looking everywhere but at him. Agent? Aaron was an...Spencer took a deep breath but his lungs felt like there was no air in them. The world started to swim, he stumbled and then Aaron was rushing at him a look of concern on his face. As the world darkened even more, Spencer gave up the last of his strength to reach up and slap the look of concern off of his face. 

XxXxXxX

Spencer was in an interrogation room. The door was open and he wasn't cuffed but there was a man standing in the doorway. He'd seen him with the man who had called himself Q. A man stepped in front of the other man said something in a low voice and he was let in. As Spencer got a good look at his face, he realized that he knew him. 

"Doctor Reid, my name is..."

"David Rossi. I remember lectures you did as part of the BAU and I've read your books."

"Good. I want to give you some news first. Your money is in a new bank account here in London. Your mother's care is being taken care of for the rest of her life, no matter the outcome of this meeting. JJ, Will, and Henry are on a commercial flight here." Rossi paused and Spencer just stared at him.

"Ten minutes after Agent Hotchner texted the hit list to Foyet, the Doyle's attacked the club. Agent Hotchner got JJ and Will out unharmed and Interpol and the FBI invaded, taking out Foyet, Doyle and their men in one fell swoop."

"Why was I taken hostage?" Spencer asked.

"Doyle did have a hit out on you, but we could never figure out why. He didn't have a name just a general description and that you had an eidetic memory. Agent..." 

"You can call him Hotch."

"Hotch figured out it was you and kept an eye. He took a chance when you were mugged."

"So it was all an act? The threats on my life, my families life? Why wasn't I just told?"

"Hotch's superiors decided you were not to be told, just in case you were a plant. Hotch never thought that and he hated it."

"I bet," Spencer said sarcastically. 

"Doctor Reid..."

"So what is the pay for my mother? Hush money?"

"You can't go back and live there. Doyle has friends and he put a hit on you. He blames you and loose lips have put him in touch with your name. We have been able to block them from finding your mother and your's connection but Interpol and the FBI will watch her."

"So I am banished here to London? What if I don't want to live here?" Spencer asked and he leaned forward, bracing on his hands some. Rossi's eyes moved to his arms and down to his hands, widening when they stopped at his wrist. He opened the file he had and looked again at his wrist.

"We will bring your bonded over as well. We just need his or her name."

"Not necessary. I don't want to be with him."

"Well if you ever change your mind, you can call me." Rossi slid a card over and Spencer looked at and then looked back up.

"I don't see my mind changing at any time, Agent Rossi." Spencer had got what he wanted and so had Hotch. There was nothing more needed between them. Hotch could go back to his life and Spencer would start his new one.

"Q has an apartment set up for you. Everything that was pulled out of your place in Vegas has been shipped there. If you don't want the job with MI6, you'll be free to do as you wish. Interpol is footing the bill for your place for a year while you get established. JJ and Will are being relocated as well for their own safety. They were offered to be moved anywhere but they want to be with you. So we will be setting them up with lives here, very close to what they had in the US."

"Am I free to go? I already wrote out my summary of what happened." Spencer had spent most of the day writing it. He'd not left a single thing out and he kind of felt a bit of revenge on whoever had to read it. He'd laid out every single word that Hotch had said to him. Everything that Hotch had done. 

Before Rossi could answer, the man who had been standing in the doorway turned. He smiled at Spencer and his ice blue eyes were soft.

"Come on, boffin. Q is chomping at the bit wanting to talk to you about something."

"Doctor Reid, this is James Bond, one of Her Majesty's Secret Service Agents. He'll take you to Q."

"Thank you, Agent Rossi. I hope I never see you or any FBI or Interpol Agents ever again." Spencer moved towards Bond and was shocked when he was tucked under his arm and kept close. 

"Spencer!" Hotch yelled but he didn't turn back. Didn't even hesitate. He let Bond escort him out. Bond opened the door on a car that had a driver and instead of getting in the back with him, he got in the front. Bond handed back a handcherif and put up the partition. Spencer curled into the seat. He had no clue where his bag was. He had no clue on anything. And he didn't care. He wanted to go home, but understood that he couldn't. He cried for everything that he had lost. 

Spencer lost track of time as they drove and as if knowing he was done crying, the car stopped and the engine was cut off. The door opened and Q was standing there with a smile on his face. Spencer forced a smile on his and got out. He'd make the best that he could of his life.

XxXxXxX

There was a knock at Spencer's door. He wasn’t expecting anyone but it could have been any of the 00 Agents as they liked to drop by and see him on occasion. Bond was the worst, but he didn't knock. 

Not even checking the peephole, Spencer opened the door. He had a smile on his face until he saw who was standing there. Hotch was there. Spencer took a step back and looked around for the gun he had. He'd left it out on the coffee table as he was getting ready to clean it. 

"Doctor Reid, my name is Aaron Hotchner and this is my son, Jack." Hotch laid his hand down on the shoulder of a boy who looked to be a few years older than Henry. "I was hoping for a chance to start over."

"Why?"

"Can we talk inside?"

"I..." Spencer snapped his mouth shut and stepped back. Hotch directed his son in but didn't move too far in. Spencer turned his back, grabbing the gun and putting it up in the safe. "What are you doing here, Hotch? I thought I made it plain that-"

"Please, can we just talk?" Hotch interrupted him. 

"Fine. Henry's room is available for Jack to play in, if he wants."

"Jack?"

"Please, Dad?" Jack asked. Hotch nodded so Spencer moved back to the room that was Henry's and opened the door. Jack bustled in and made for the legos in the corner. Hotch was standing in the same place by the door when Spencer turned around. 

"You can have a seat."

"I'm not sure I want to be that close to you and a lamp," Hotch said with a smile. It was forced but his eyes were sincere.

"I won't break a lamp over your head. I promise." Spencer sat down in the chair that was by it's lonesome. Hotch took a seat on the couch that was closest to him. 

"It's been six months. Since you came to live here in London. I wanted to give you more time but I..." Hotch looked away. "I didn't know. I didn't know until you told Rossi that you wanted nothing to do with your soulmate. I didn't even pay attention to your file, at least that part of it. I threw up when I figured it out. I want to know why you gave into me."

"Because I was going to end it, somehow. Working out what Doyle wanted me dead for or getting out of your clutches. I wanted one night with my soulmate before I never saw him again."

"You knew for over a year that I was-"

"No. My mark didn't count down to the day that you and I first met. It counted down to the second you touched me in the alley." Spencer looked at Hotch's wrist.

"My father mangled it when I was fifteen." Hotch's hand move slowly into the gap between them. Touching his sock covered foot before sliding up to his ankle. That flare of want, of need was there. "I didn't realize what it was until you said you wanted nothing to do with me. I'd felt that want of you from the moment I met you. I just assumed that it was what it was. Then the ache started. I'll do whatever I have to do to get you back. But I promise that if you don't ever want to see me again, I'll disappear."

"What do you do now?"

"That was my last mission like that. I am burnt out on undercover. I have a desk job here in London's Interpol office. My ex-wife died two months before I started the mission. It was supposed to be six months and it ended up being two years. So I won't be disappearing on you. I may do day trips to other offices around the world, occasionally up to a week but that's it."

"Henry loves that necklace." Spencer wanted to know why that necklace had been bought for him. It was the only thing that hadn't made sense when it was all said and done.

"Q had it made for him. Just incase Doyle figured it out. He can track it down to the half block."

"I..." Spencer closed his mouth. "I don't know what I want." 

"I'll go. I didn't want to have anything left to surprise you with. That was the only reason I brought Jack." Hotch stood up and moved towards the room Jack was in. He was almost to it when Spencer jumped out of his chair. He raced at the man, pushing him into the wall and kissing him. Hotch didn't waste any time. He grabbed at Spencer's face, not letting him escape. 

"Don't leave me. Please Aaron. Don't leave me." Spencer laid his forehead on Aaron's. Aaron's hands turned gentle, less gripping his face and more cupping it. The ache in his heart was just like it had been in the days that followed him getting to London. "I thought that I could do it but I can't. If you hadn't walked back in I probably could have. I don't want you gone, heaven help me I can't let you go again."

"I should be sorry but I am not. I thought that I could let you go. When you walked away with Bond and didn't look back, I gave myself six months. If at the end of six months, I felt I could live without you, I was going to, but I couldn't. I fell in love and I shouldn't have. Now I understand why, but it doesn't help me not want you. I was pissed at you for a while. That you kept that from me, but as Prentiss pointed out, it wasn't like letting me know was going to help you. If I had been the person I was playing, having my soulmate there, the shit you thought I would, could have done. The sociopath that I played would have used you up and you'd have been nothing. I don't know why you didn't kill yourself, knowing that it would have killed me too."

"Because I didn't know what plans you had in place for my mother, my family. I wasn't going to leave them to that."

"That love you have for them. I hope one day that you feel it for me and for Jack. He's a good boy and I want to be the hero he sees me as and right now, I don't feel like it. I want to take this slow, Spencer."

"I've wondered from the moment that I realized that my mark disappeared why it happened then and not before. Not any of the times that you touched me in the club. What were you feeling when you saw me? Beaten from the mugging?"

"I was scared and protective. You were hurt and while it gave me the chance to save you, I felt that I had to."

"You weren't playing a part right then. It was the first honest meeting we had, you wanting to protect me. That's why it disappeared then. I wonder when your's was set to disappear because I've never not been myself. It's odd."

"It's the best explanation and it's one I hadn't thought of." Aaron leaned in and kissed his forehead, rubbing his thumbs over his cheeks before letting his hands settle down on Spencer's shoulders. "Do you like MI6?"

"I'm an analyst of sorts. Translator. Q gets me access to anything that I want, legal or not. It's nice. I'm escorted home by security or one of the agents every night. And a car is waiting every morning. Q's taken to making sure that I am safe at all times. JJ, Will, and Henry have less invasive eyes on them and will for a few years. I think that mine will be for the rest of my life. One of Doyle's associates took a vacation in London two months back."

"I was aware."

"Bond escorted me everywhere."

"Why Bond?"

"Q really likes me and his Agent does whatever he wants him to."

"His Agent?" Aaron asked.

"Yes. Well, Bond is very possessive and so is Q. One of the new Agents made a pass at him. His hand was shattered, the one that touched him." Spencer smiled at Aaron. The touching, even through clothes was nice. He laid one of his hands on Aaron's chest, above his heart to feel the beat of it. They said nothing as they just stared at each other, enjoying the silence.

"Dad?" Jack's voice called out. Spencer looked down at the boy. Jack was looking up at them from the doorway to Henry's room.

"Jack, this is Spencer. Spencer, Jack." Aaron looked at him, his eyes asking. Spencer nodded. "He's my soulmate."

"Really?" Jack smiled real big and crashed into Spencer's legs, hugging them tight. "I'm happy he found you."

Spencer's heart was in his throat. "I'm happy, too."

"When are we moving in here? This place is huge. Henry's room is awesome."

"Jack, that's something that is a little ways away. We have to get to know each other first. But we can in a few months talk about that."

"When I find my soulmate, I'm moving in right away."

Spencer laughed. 

"Jack you and your soulmate are going to meet in a few weeks," Aaron said with a laugh. 

"That soon?" Spencer asked.

"Yes. I'm not paying that close of attention but by the end of the month."

"Oh. I guess I won't move out then." Jack hadn't let go of Spencer. 

"So it's dinner time and I was going to order Thai. But we can order whatever."

"Jack likes Chicken Pad Thai so Thai is fine. I don't want to impose."

"JJ just picked up Henry an hour ago. I was going to spend the rest of the night adjusting to being alone. So not imposing at all." Spencer laid his hand on Jack's head, ruffling his hair a little. The time with Jack would be good. He would be able to adjust and not worry about falling into bed with Aaron. There was a lot of work to be done between them, but he didn't want to be without the feeling he would get when Aaron was touching him. Ever.  
**The End**


End file.
